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June 09, 2005

BicycleRetailer.com: Release the content!

(*update: Realizing that many visitors to this blog may not be familiar with the bike industry, BRaIN is an acronym for Bicycle Retailer & Industry News, the only magazine dedicated to covering the U.S. bicycle industry. I've also added the word "magazine" after BRaIN.)

Wouldn't it be great if BRaIN Magazine was available online, in a complete and searchable format? I'm no publishing industry expert, so I may be wrong, but I think this would be a great move for them and it would really make our industry better.

Here are some reasons I think BRaIN Magazine should post all their content online:

Reason #1 - Ease of Delivery
Sometimes I don't get my issue until more than a week into the month. People reference stories in phone conversations and emails and I have no idea what they're talking about. With full online archives posted in a timely manner, this would no longer be an issue.

Reason #2 - It's free already!
They can't say "we need the subscription revenue" because as far as I know, the magazine is already free.

Reason #3 - Blogosphere
When blogs reference certain articles, they could link directly to them. This would increase their page views (good for advertisers), and would be an easy way for them to join the online community.

Reason #4 - Serve the industry
The goal of BRaIN is to make this industry better by giving us a resource for information to make more informed business decisions. .

Reason #5 - Search
Google and other search engines love content-rich sites with plenty of inbound and outbound links. A BRaIN website with full archives would have a much better search profile than it does now.

Reason #6 - Cash moneySimply put, this small step would make VNU more money. More content = more page views = more visitors = more advertisers = more moola.

Reason #7 - Resource for journalists and the mediaMedia people live online. They're always trolling the web for story ideas and background information. Not only would more content help them with their stories but I'll bet they'd actually give the cycling world more coverage in the process.

Reason #8 - EmailWouldn't it be great to be able to easily email your partners, employees, and your clients when you read a good article?I'm sure there are more reasons, but this should be a good start. If you have others, or if you think I'm totally off base, send me an email. Or, better yet, leave a comment for the whole world to see.